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before i discovered streambaby just recently, i used to transfer video from my mac to tivo and one of the very compelling reasons to buy the elite was the gigabit ethernet. i was hoping for, if not an order-of-magnitude increase, at least a significant one.

unfortunately, it hasn't seemed to increase my transfer speed much at all over the 100mb ethernet of the s3. and my link from the tivo to the computer is gigabit all the way.

my transfers are not much better than real time, in other words, to transfer a 10 minute show would take nearly 10 minutes. could this be the fault of tivo desktop (mac) or toast 11 tivo transfer?

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

And, I transferred/watched on recording, and it now shows up in Now Playing as a single entry. I had assumed with pyTivo running it would show up in My PC folder. However, after transferring/watching My PC has disappeared from Now Playing.

Stick with me please.

I'm afraid I didn't follow to well.

Were you saying that you transferred one video successfully but after this your pyTivo video share disappeared from the Now Playing List?

If this is the case your router may have issues with passing multicast packets.

Two things:

Check your router configuration and see if it gives you an option for enabling 'Multicast' or something to that effect.

Add the 'beacon' setting to your pyTivo.conf. You can read its description here.

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my transfers are not much better than real time, in other words, to transfer a 10 minute show would take nearly 10 minutes. could this be the fault of tivo desktop (mac) or toast 11 tivo transfer?

/guy

Mac TiVo desktop (I don't know about Toast) will only stream if the file is completely compatible aka mpeg2 video (the Windows version will push compatible MP4 files I think). It transcodes all other times. You probably notice your Mac CPU is very high when transfering.

Over and above what Mac Tivo Desktop does pyTivo from wmcbrine will take a file such as an MKV video and if both video and audio are compatible with the TiVo (it is generally looking for h264/vc1 video and AC-3/AAC audio) it will remux this into a MP4 and push it to the TiVo this way. With my pyTivo fork (there are several pyTivo developers) as long as you have compatible video and ANY audio it will remux the video into a compatible MP4 file for pushing (it automatically transcodes incompatible audio to AC-3 during the remux).

I can remux and transfer a compatible 2hr MKV movie in 10 mins or so. If it requires audio transcoding add a couple more depending on the speed of your system.

The ONLY thing I miss from streambaby is the ability to use the subtitles with the video.

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are you talking sd or hd? my typical file is 1920x1080i (24 or 30fps) with the occasional 1920x1080p (60fps). these are about 100mb per minute with a typical 10 minute file being nearly 1gb in size.

/guy

1080p24 10-12GB file. I don't have any 60fps but it would only add a bit more time. Although I'm not entirely certain that 1080p60 types of videos are compatible with TiVo natively.

Speed during a remux depends purely on the file size and speed of your hard drives as it is only doing a data copy from one file to another.

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As a general question; what is the advantage (if any) of pyTiVo over streambaby? I have the later up and running. I didn't succeed the first time trying to set up pyTiVo and wonder if I should bother trying again since I have Streambaby working brilliantly on my iMac (wired LAN -> wired TiVo).

streambaby just streams the video, leaving no trace on the TiVo afterwards, AFAIK.

Whereas pyTiVo actually transfers the file onto the TiVo, and you can watch it while it transfers. It remains there on the TiVo even after you've turned the computer off, and can be played again and again until you delete it off the TiVo.

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@Iluvatar: you've given me something to think about, for sure. over the next 3 days i'm going to be trying out most of the tools we've been talking about on this thread. right now i've got pytivox and streambaby running given that i have to run a manual command (mDNS -R \"streambaby\" _tivo-hme._tcp . 7290 path=/streambaby) to get streambaby to work. but i would much prefer to be running one of the pytivo supported builds such as yours or wmcbrine and not having to rely on pytivox continuing to work.

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

Thanks will try tomorrow - wicked bad cold is forcing me to bed, with a hardy dose of NyQuil.

What I meant to say is that after transferring/watching that one video, when I go back into Now Playing I see the video as a single entry in Now Playing but don't see my Macbook folder Movies - it disappeared.

Here's how to use make a simple application to start PyTiVo. Open AppleScript Editor and paste this code in:

Code:

do shell script "cd /Applications/pyTivo
./pyTivo.py"

(and click on "run" to test it.)

This can then be saved as an application.

I'd like to also then have an easy way to quit PyTiVo when I'm done with my transfers. I found this link: Killing an Application With Terminal
...but I don't know how to translate that into an AppleScripted application (or if it's even possible.)

Hey that's really cool Fof! I like it and it works.
I'm working on getting it to run in the background too. Oops... My wife says it's time to eat. I'll be back (we are in Tahoe)

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

@bareyb: good timing as i am just now running through your new 'howto' on pytivo. your instructions are very clear indeed and i had absolutely no problem downloading and installing pytivo and ffmpeg. going through your process, i notice i originally missed quite a few steps when i was doing my original install a few weeks back, especially in the config portion of pytivo.

but i've hit sort of a showstopper. i added a section for my videos and provided a path to my video folders. but it appears that pytivo won't recognize videos inside folders, thus it appears i'd have to add every folder of videos separately. this is a big no-go for me since i add subfolders inside subfolders inside subfolders. streambaby lets me actually navivate my folder structure from the tivo and i assumed pytivo would be the same. please someone post if there is a workaround for this. in the meantime, i'll temporarily point it to one folder with loose videos for test purposes.

also, here is a cleaner, one-line command for your applescript with the caveat it worked on my system, but if somehow one of your permissions is set differently, you might still need the ./ prefix to launch pytivo.py. and of course your path is a little simpler than mine, replace the '_video/TiVo/pyTivo/' section with your actual path:

Code:

/Applications/_video/TiVo/pyTivo/pyTivo.py

inside the applescript editor it should look like:

Code:

do shell script "/Applications/_video/TiVo/pyTivo/pyTivo.py"

also, i think the term 'streaming' in step 6 is a misnomer as @Iluvatar has said pytivo only transfers, it doesn't stream.

great job dude! it could use a little shoring up in the terminal section and i'll bet @fofer can help there. for just one instance, when you restart pytivo after the config in step six, you don't stop the current running instance first. now it might be the case that two sessions can't be running simultaneously and there would be an automatic shutdown of the previous session before the restart, but i haven't investigate that far. my inclination would be to just hit ^C (control+c) in the terminal window where pytivo is running, then hit the up arrow which will 'paste' in the previous command which ran it, then just hit enter.

more later as i proceed ...

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

but i've hit sort of a showstopper. i added a section for my videos and provided a path to my video folders. but it appears that pytivo won't recognize videos inside folders, thus it appears i'd have to add every folder of videos separately. this is a big no-go for me since i add subfolders inside subfolders inside subfolders. streambaby lets me actually navivate my folder structure from the tivo and i assumed pytivo would be the same. please someone post if there is a workaround for this. in the meantime, i'll temporarily point it to one folder with loose videos for test purposes.
/guy

Set this in your pyTivo.conf file under the [Server] heading, save and reset.

Code:

debug = True

Will need the log output from running pyTivo after attempting to view the bad subfolder. First guess is there may be a misspelling or a odd character in the folder name.

....FWIW All config options are already detailed in either the pyTivo WebAdmin interface or at the official pyTivo wiki.

For future reference do not expect the best support for pyTivo if you stick to posting in this thread instead of the pyTivo thread here at TCF or at the pyTivo support forum. It just won't get read by the same volume of people who could help since this thread is about pyTivoX

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Set this in your pyTivo.conf file under the [Server] heading, save and reset.

Code:

debug = True

Will need the log output from running pyTivo after attempting to view the bad subfolder. First guess is there may be a misspelling or a odd character in the folder name.

....All config options are already detailed in either the pyTivo WebAdmin interface or at the official pyTivo wiki.

For future reference do not expect the best support for pyTivo if you stick to posting in this thread instead of the pyTivo thread here at TCF or at the pyTivo support forum. It just won't get read by the same volume of people who could help.

i understand about the support. just trying to help @bareyb with his guide for now.

i found one killer problem and one potential one. i had underscores in the names of the shares and i removed those. one path started working after that. the other share i had a bad path (two __ underscores and my eyes are getting bad!). but now i have navigation of the directory tree on my mac and i transferred a short 1080p video and it appeared nearly instantly and played without problems. i'm now transferring a full hd 12 minute 814mb video and we'll see how long it takes ...

.... oh cool! there's a counter running in the shell. this is 30fps and has a bitrate of 10325kb/s. and there is a time counter there as well if it stays after the transfer completes ...

... unfortunately, the time is nearly exactly as my predictions i posted before--it's running at approx 100mb or less per minute which means this video is going to take at least 12 minutes for the 12 minutes of content. a move would take 90 minutes at that rate.

oh, and @bareyb, for that spot i was speaking of in step 6 where you restart pytivo, there is a restart button right on that html config page.

so @Iluvatar, would i experience better speeds if i used your fork instead? i'm embarrased to admit it, but i was going to use your fork when trying out @bareyb's guide, but i couldn't find the download link on that project page nor at any of the links on the line explaining your build.

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

FWIW I followed bareyb's setup tutorial, and the resulting menu on my TiVo does let me traverse through sub-folders to transfer/watch videos.

I was just coming in to say the same. It seems to dig through layers of subfolders with no problem on mine too. My Music folder is quite a few levels down. By the way, the Music folder is pretty kick ass and it was super easy to setup.

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

i understand about the support. just trying to help @bareyb with his guide for now.

i found one killer problem and one potential one. i had underscores in the names of the shares and i removed those. one path started working after that. the other share i had a bad path (two __ underscores and my eyes are getting bad!). but now i have navigation of the directory tree on my mac and i transferred a short 1080p video and it appeared nearly instantly and played without problems. i'm now transferring a full hd 12 minute 814mb video and we'll see how long it takes ...

.... oh cool! there's a counter running in the shell. this is 30fps and has a bitrate of 10325kb/s. and there is a time counter there as well if it stays after the transfer completes ...

... unfortunately, the time is nearly exactly as my predictions i posted before--it's running at approx 100mb or less per minute which means this video is going to take at least 12 minutes for the 12 minutes of content. a move would take 90 minutes at that rate.

oh, and @bareyb, for that spot i was speaking of in step 6 where you restart pytivo, there is a restart button right on that html config page.

so @Iluvatar, would i experience better speeds if i used your fork instead? i'm embarrased to admit it, but i was going to use your fork when trying out @bareyb's guide, but i couldn't find the download link on that project page nor at any of the links on the line explaining your build.

/guy

Now see Iluvatar, it's not just me.

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

the photo share, however, seems a different story. is it really necessary to install the 'pil' (python image library) to be able to display photos? the great thing about the tivo desktop pref panel is that it recognizes both the itunes and the iphoto library and lets you specify both playlists and photo albums or events and no drilling down to get to them. of course the pytivo way is handy in case you have loose photo folders scattered around. but so far pytivo won't display any photos at all.

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

perhaps the os 10.7.3 update or a java update has caused some fatal incompatibility although this help page was posted less than a month ago.

luckily, this terminal command (which i don't even pretend to understand) posted by some kind soul still works:

mDNS -R \"streambaby\" _tivo-hme._tcp . 7290 path=/streambaby

but the kicker is for this to work, you also have to have pytivox running and that's what we're trying to get away from. it will need more smarts than what i have to get streambaby working without pytivo.

i've left a query comment at that page.

/guy

__________________
We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

the photo share, however, seems a different story. is it really necessary to install the 'pil' (python image library) to be able to display photos? the great thing about the tivo desktop pref panel is that it recognizes both the itunes and the iphoto library and lets you specify both playlists and photo albums or events and no drilling down to get to them. of course the pytivo way is handy in case you have loose photo folders scattered around. but so far pytivo won't display any photos at all.

/guy

Yep. You have to have PIL and apparently it's not exactly a walk in the park to get it installed... If you don't have it, Terminal will generate an error message looking for it.

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

that's a bummer. not worth it then as long as the tivo desktop prefpane is iphoto savvy. of course, no telling how long that prefpane will continue to work, godz only knows how old it is.

/guy

I have a feeling someone will figure it out and post how to do it at some point. It can't be THAT hard. We may just need someone who knows how to compile this stuff, do the heavy lifting and then provide a link to the finished product like Iluvatar did for his custom ffmpeg build. I have no idea, but for what it's worth I have an email in to Technical Support. We'll see if it pans out.

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

In case anyone wants there is an option to run pyTivo in the background upon user logon or system startup. This is already described in the pyTivo wiki for OS X installation.
-----------

Mac OS X 10.6 and up

Setting pyTivo to launch on startup automatically and in the background on Mac OS X is relatively easy.

* You must make a text file named "pyTivo.plist" with any text editor.

* Place the file in /Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents (your user library folder) if you want pyTivo to load only when you are logged on. Or place the file in /Library/LaunchDaemons if you want pyTivo to startup on system boot regardless of whoever is logged in.
** In 10.7 Lion, Apple has hidden the User library folder. To view it open your Finder and hold down the 'Option' key and choose 'Go > Library' from the Finder menu.

* Include the following code in the file (you need to update the path to the your pyTivo folder).

There it is ready to use on a Mac. I installed it in my Launch Agents folder and it's working perfectly. Just copy and paste the text below into a "Plain text Document" (TextEdit) and save the file into the Launch Agents Folder. After that, it should launch pyTivo in the background and leave the Terminal free. If you want to turn it off just remove the file from the Launch Agents folder. Big thanks to Iluvatar for putting it all together.

If you have trouble finding your user library folder just use this exact command in Terminal (assuming you saved pyTivo.plist file to your desktop):

Code:

mv ~/Desktop/pyTivo.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

to delete the file use:

Code:

rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/pyTivo.plist

Remember by using this you will have no indication that pyTivo is running other than by being able to see your shares in the TiVo NPL or opening http://localhost:9032 which is your pyTivo WebAdmin interface.

Pretty cool eh? Seems to me if one could create an AppleScript for those too if one was so inclined.

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

i've never used the launchagents method. i just create apps using applescript and then drag them into the system prefs / users & groups / logins items list. that way seems more manageable to me if you need to manipulate them at all.

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien

I'm working on cleaning up some of the other pages too, also added a few more pics and some important links I had left out. I still have some other corrections to make, but I'm getting them done a little at a time... Is it a little sick that I'm enjoying my vacation more because I have this to work on while I'm here?

Meh. I think it's fun and isn't the point of vacation??? Besides, I like to have something to do while I'm watching TV at night. Skiing always kicks my butt the first couple of days...

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

sounds like me! anyway, your first draft was more than adequate to get me up and running and the screenshots were the icing on the cake, but i had done most of the steps on my own research a few weeks back. i'm sure we'll find a newbie guinea pig eventually to give it a good, thorough evaluation.

/guy

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We were somewhere around the Withywindle on the edge of the Old Forest when the drugs began to take hold. ~Hunter S. Tolkien